Cold Betrayal
by Naz Delphiki
Summary: Time has passed since Lan's time. A new evil organization has formed on the net. They are smarter, more clever, and more dangerous than any before. And the only ones that can stop them are a young boy and his Navi allies.


Sunlight poured through the eastern window of Andrew Locke's room. The rays lit up the room instantly, moving themselves over every possible object in the room within a second, including the closed eyelids of Andrew himself. The young boy slowly cracked his eyelids open and after a second of sight quickly positioned his lower arm over his newly opened eyes to shield the bright morning sun. He rolled to his side, and after pausing to rub the sleep out of his eyes sat up.

He yawned loudly and took in the scenery of his room as he did everyday. Nothing had changed from the day before, seeing as how when he looked forward toward his wall the same action figures, stuffed animals, and computer stared back at him lifelessly. But something was indeed different about this day. Looking at the blank computer screen had reminded little Andrew of this. Today was his birthday!

He quickly threw off his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sheets, leaped off his bed, and ran down his house's stairs as quickly as he could. He instinctively entered the kitchen where his parents were just as they were every morning. He looked up at his mother's gentle face as she took a sip from her morning coffee. Her eyes showed tenderness and joy, and his shone with intense excitement.

"Mom! Can we go now? Can we?" he excitedly pleaded. His anticipation made it so he could hardly speak clearly enough to be understood.

"I'm not going to take any son of mine to a PET store dressed like that," she amusingly replied.

Andrew looked himself over and realized that he was still in his pajamas. Mildly embarrassed, he dashed upstairs to change into some clothes more suited for being in public. After throwing on some blue jeans and a white shirt with a Turtle logo on the front he rushed back downstairs to see that his mother was already starting up the car. He waved goodbye to his father, who was still reading the NetNews at his computer, and ran out the front door.

The ride to the PET store felt like it took hours to Andrew, although it could not have taken more than ten minutes. But the boy had a right to be so excited. Today was his eighth birthday, and it had become a custom in the world for every child to receive their first Personal Terminal, complete with a Net Navi, on the day they turned eight years old. Andrew was no exception. He had been looking forward to this day since he had learned of what PETs were and saw them in action for the first time. He was absolutely amazed, and he couldn't wait to get one of his own to go exploring on the net, duel with viruses, and bond with the artificial intelligence program inside.

The store was enormous. There was aisle upon aisle of PETs, PET maintenance programs, upgrade programs, battle chips, and countless other materials. Andrew ran immediately to the first aisle of new PETs of course. Each box had a picture of the Net Navi programmed into the PET inside on the cover, so one could see what they were buying before they purchased anything. The first thing Andrew noticed was that the selection was huge, and there were countless models to choose from. They ranged in design from female and male humanoids, mythical creatures, zoo animals, alien creatures, twenty-first century androids, and almost anything else that one could imagine. A lot had changed since the early days of PETs when only limited variations of humanoid models were designed.

Andrew's mother couldn't keep up with him as he ran up and down each aisle excitedly searching for a Navi that suited his tastes. It took a good fifteen minutes before his marathon ended and he picked up a PET with a Navi that appealed to him. The Navi he chose was a humanoid model with old-fashioned style blue armor. In fact, it greatly resembled the historical icon Megaman, including every feature from the slightly thick buster cannon to the armor. By scanning the box a little more, Andrew discovered that the Navi's name was Enderman, it was a newly released model, and the bonus battle chip included in the box was called Xenoray, whatever that was.

Andrew picked up the box and handed it to his rather exhausted mother, expressing his interest in it. She looked it over, and was slightly displeased in her son's decision. The box appeared to be damaged by water and carelessness, as if an unsatisfied customer had returned it. Also, the information on the box wasn't complete. For one, there was no company name or logo on it, which she thought was a requirement before a company could release their product. She expressed this feeling of skepticism to her son.

"I don't know if we can trust this PET's reliability honey. It looks as though it is, well, a piece of junk."

Andrew replied with nothing but persistence, however. "But mom! I don't want any other one! This one is perfect! I promise I'll take care of it! Please can I have it? Please?"

Mrs. Locke never could deny her son when he used that innocently nagging tone. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed; perhaps the box was just a little mishandled and the PET hadn't been damaged at all. It was also possible that the company logo was absent due to a simple printing error. Besides, if there were any unusual problems, she could always bring it back and exchange it for a different one, even if it was much to the dismay of her son. So she gave in, of course.

"Alright. You can have it."

Andrew literally jumped up and down in his joy, shouting out words of happiness as he did so.

"If you don't be quiet I'll change my mind," his mother stated calmly, yet quite amusedly.

Andrew quieted down without another word.

After buying the necessary products for maintaining the PET, a new chip folder, and a beginner's set of chips, they headed home. Andrew didn't even bother to kick off his shoes before running upstairs to his room. He of course brought along his unopened PET and full chip folder. Upon entering his room he ripped open the annoying sticker seals on the PET box and pulled the PET out of the bubble wrap it was contained in. After popping a few of the bubbles for amusement as any child would have, he searched the PET for the switch or button that turned it on, and found a pin that had to be removed to accomplish the task. That made sense, for once a PET was turned on there was no way to turn it off without destroying it. Andrew paused for only a second after seeing it before he removed it. The screen flickered on, and within seconds a gentle, yet fiercely determined looking face appeared on the screen, resembling almost perfectly the one that was on the box, with everything from the green colored eyes to the blue helmet covering up portions of the top and bottom.

Andrew was slightly startled when the face's lips moved and sound came from the PET device.

"Hello," it said, "my name is Enderman. What's yours?"

Andrew stuttered a bit as he replied. "H-hi. I-I'm Andrew."

"Good to meet you Andrew!" The face smiled.

"Yeah. Good meeting you too."

There was an awkward silence after this. Andrew didn't know what to say or do. He was still in a state of awe that he had his very own PET now. The Navi inside seemed quite nice, but Andrew still didn't know how to approach him and start talking with him. He had never attempted to hold a one-on-one conversation with a Net Navi before. Luckily, Enderman took the initiative.

"So what do you say to some virus busting? I've been sleeping in here so long, and I can't wait to get out on the net and see some action. So are you feeling up to it?"

Andrew couldn't have been more pleased with the words. This truly was the right Navi for him. "Yes! Let's do it!" He tried to remember how his father always logged onto the net. Recalling as best he could, he took the PET in his right hand, rose it above his head for show, and also for the sake of savoring the moment yelled, "Jack in! Enderman.EXE, transmit!" before inserting the port at the top of the PET into the slot at the base of his computer.

The display on the screen had changed when Andrew looked back down at it. Instead of showing only Enderman's face and a black background, it now showed the entirety of his body in some odd environment. Numbers, letters, and other symbols floated around the entire place, and the surface Enderman stood on was just a conglomerate of the numbers so tightly packed together that it looked like a solid surface to the naked eye. Andrew recognized this place at once, however, seeing as how he had watched his father explore the net many times. He spoke to Enderman through the two-way speaker at the base of the PET.

"Why don't you head forward, out of my computer's area and onto the net?"

Enderman happily obeyed and ran forward to a portal that led to the local net. The net wasn't all that different terrain-wise from Andrew's computer. The traffic, however, was much more dense and noticeable. Miscellaneous programs and files were flying around everywhere trying to reach their various destinations, portals and links were being accessed everywhere, and mail messages, upgrade programs, and maintenance Navis were seen wherever one looked. The net was truly a spectacular place.

"How are we supposed to find any viruses here?" Andrew innocently asked. "There are so many anti-virus programs here that a virus couldn't even last a few seconds without being found and deleted."

"That's true," replied Enderman. "However, in my programming I have knowledge of a place where viruses are very common. It is a very popular place for operators and their Navis, because everyone loves NetBattling."

"Well what are we waiting for then? Let's go!"

Enderman grinned and ran off to some portal in a less populated part of the net. He ran into it and reappeared in a place that resembled the inside of an ancient stadium. In it, there were countless portals with countless Navis entering and exiting them.

"These portals lead to less guarded parts of the Net where viruses are quite common. If we're lucky, we may find one that isn't overrun with other Navis right now, because as you can see, this place is quite popular."

"Alright," Andrew replied, "jump into the green one a bit to your right. I haven't seen many people jumping into that one."

Enderman nodded and jumped in. The place he arrived at was a bit darker than the other sections of the net Andrew had seen thus far, although there was still light enough for him to see clearly. He directed Enderman in the direction of a rather far off green colored data crystal, which hopefully contained a decent battle chip. As Enderman ran forward, he encountered his first virus. It looked fairly easy to defeat, even at the duo's low experience level.

"Alright!" Andrew exclaimed. "Our first battle! Let's bust this virus! Try to weaken it with your buster cannon as I dig out some chips!"

Enderman rose his buster cannon to the same level as his target's torso was at and began to fire rapidly. The virus was shaped like a spider, so it was rather difficult to connect with the torso because of the legs that were being used as shields. He managed connect a few times with the blasts of laser energy coming from his buster cannon, but it was not enough to deal any significant damage. Luckily, Andrew was ready with the first battle chip before the spider had time to attack.

"I'm going to send you the chip your PET came with, okay? I don't know for sure what it does, but we might as well give it a shot." He inserted the thin chip into the almost as thin slot at the base of the PET. The effects were immediately obvious, as Enderman's buster cannon began to glow an almost fluorescent black color. The glow became more and more intense, and the end of the cannon began to swell up in flame, as if a devastating blast was about to be let off. But within seconds of the time the buster cannon began glowing and swelling it unexpectedly and abruptly stopped, and sparks began to fly in all directions from it.

"Something's wrong!" Enderman said, panicking. "Take the chip out or something!"

Andrew tried to do as Enderman said, but he couldn't. The chip was stuck. After using a little force, however, he managed to pry it out. Unfortunately, while forcing it out of the chip slot, Andrew had cracked the chip, making it worthless. Not that it was worth much anyway, seeing as how it just about destroyed Enderman when he tried to use it.

"Okay. I got it out! I'm now sending a Sword chip!"

It didn't come soon enough to stop the spider virus from making a move, however. In the confusion of the Xenoray chip's malfunction, the spider virus had managed to take the initiative and attack Enderman. It sent a sphere of green poison at Enderman, and because he was occupied with the sparks flying from his arm, he didn't notice the attack until it was too late. The sphere exploded upon impact, covering almost all of Enderman's front half with green slime and causing him much pain, which was intense enough to make him fall to the ground. He managed to regain his composure quickly enough, however, and when the Sword chip had processed he was ready to use it.

The spider was already beginning its next attack, which seemed to consist of getting fairly close to the target, which was Enderman. This was perfect for the Navi. He began to dash toward the virus at an alarming speed, and when he was close enough he flung his sword arm into the air and then immediately thrust it downward onto the center of the spider virus's main body. It sliced through the spider with relative ease, causing a mild explosion, and within seconds the spider virus was nothing more than a pile of net debris waiting to be cleaned by the next cleanup Navis to sweep through the area.

"We did it Andrew," stated an exasperated Enderman, "we defeated our first virus!"

The next year was a blur. Andrew started schooling with Enderman, which taught them many new strategies, how to use chips more efficiently, what laws of the net they must obey, and many other useful things. They also grew much more powerful as NetBattlers, gaining new experience and powerful battle chips. Their abilities weren't the only thing that grew, however. Their friendship developed a vast amount in their time together.

One reason for their friendship was that Andrew wasn't considered to be a very cool kid in his school. The other kids called him a geek or dork because he spent all of his time exploring the net and battling viruses. The others felt it was more important to become powerful via money earned by taking odd jobs in certain online corporations, and earn your powerful chips that way. Many of them had parents running the large corporations, so it was rather easy for them to get a foot in the door. And when they saw someone like Andrew doing things differently, they treated him like an oddball- someone who didn't belong. So really, Enderman was Andrew's only true friend in the world, and luckily he was a very good one.

Unordinary events didn't take place all that often. Most of the time it would be the same routine for the duo daily; they would explore new areas of the net, delete viruses along the way, find new chips, and move on. So when odd things _did_ happen, they were very intrigued by them. One such event happened not even a week after Andrew's ninth birthday.

"Andrew, are we going to go through with the plan of exploring the abandoned mainframe of the old AC/DC school system today?"

"Of course we are. Even if we get caught, it will be entirely worth it if we last for a good five minutes. We'll collect so many old and rare chips that we'll be peeing ourselves with joy!"

Enderman snickered in reply at the odd use of words. Even though he was showing some apprehension and hesitation, he was looking forward to going to this restricted area as much as Andrew was. The idea of collecting several new chips and deleting new varieties of viruses excited him greatly.

So of course he acted immediately when Andrew told him to enter the portion of the net that was home to many abandoned mainframes and data systems. He began to roam around, looking for the portal that would lead to the old school's system. After about twenty minutes of searching he found what he was looking for. Unfortunately it was not what he had expected. The portal was sealed off by a firewall, which upon farther investigation proved to be near impossible to hack, especially for Enderman and Andrew's skill level.

Enderman was about to disappointedly have Andrew jack him out when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He told Andrew to wait and moved toward the object he had noticed. It was another portal, vertically parallel to the firewalled one, only on a lower level. He jumped down and noticed that it had no type of firewall or barrier at all.

"Do you think this leads into the school's abandoned mainframe?" Enderman questioned.

"Only one way to find out," Andrew replied.

Enderman chuckled lightly under his breath and moved into the portal. The place he arrived at was quite different from any other he had been in before. Instead of numbers, there were countless amounts of intertwining wires running throughout the place. At first it seemed as though they were just going in random directions, but after looking a little closer it was quite obvious that they all led to a center location of sorts. So of course the best thing to do was go there.

What awaited Enderman there was like nothing he had ever seen. There, in the middle of everything, stood an enormous tower of what looked like circuit boards, from where all of the wires were extending. Every second a new portion of it lit up with electric energy showing that it was indeed active somehow.

"Is this…the central mainframe of the school?" Andrew questioned, in shock at what he saw.

Enderman had no reply, for he didn't know the answer himself, but apparently someone else did. "You are quite close, yet so far away," bellowed a low voice from behind Enderman. He quickly whipped around to see a very well built humanoid Navi towering over him. The Navi had the look of hatred on his face, as if he had destroyed many a Navi in his past.

"What do you mean?" Enderman cautiously asked the mysterious Navi.

"Let's just say this is much more important than an abandoned old school's mainframe. And if you don't mind, I'd like to take care of my business here and be on my way," said the mysterious Navi.

It took only a few moments for Andrew and Enderman to realize what was going on. "You're a hacker, aren't you?" Andrew interrogated.

A new voice, which was obviously the Navi's operator, snickered in reply. "Call me whatever you wish. I have business to take care of here."

Andrew had a strong sense of justice, however. He was not about to allow somebody he saw as evil to do whatever it was he intended to do. "I won't allow it. I won't let you pass and have access to this mainframe of… of whatever it is it's the mainframe of! Enderman! Battle routine set! Prepare for incoming chips!"

But before Andrew could send even the first chip to Enderman, the evil Navi had risen its enormous buster cannon and sent a very powerful wave of energy at him, causing him to fly back a great distance, and stay on the ground because he was immobilized by pain.

"Fools. You should have known you couldn't stand up to an elite Navi of COM. Now it's time to take care of business." The operator issued some orders to his Navi, who then walked up to the mainframe tower and placed a large circular device on the wall of it.

"It is done," the Navi said.

The only thing that Andrew saw or heard after that was an intensely bright flash on the screen of his PET and the sound of shrieking static. He had to look away and cover his ears, for it was almost unbearable to see and hear.

When the chaotic moment was over Andrew looked down at his PET screen to see nothing but a blank display staring back at him.


End file.
